Emperador to export brandy

Emperador UK Limited., a wholly-owned Filipino company based in the United Kingdom, will start exporting brandy to Eastern Europe, Russia and Africa from its vineyard in Spain next year.

Emperador Brandy will soon be produced on the most modern vineyard in Spain, also considered the largest vineyard in Europe dedicated to brandy production. Emperador’s vineyard is approximately 500 hectares in size. The water necessary to the vineyard is amply supplied by the Tajo River, the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula stretching across Spain all the way to Portugal. The vineyard uses a specially designed automated irrigation and monitoring system.

Emperador UK president Winston Co said a 1,000-hectare vineyard expansion in Spain would support the company’s plan to penetrate new export markets. Emperador UK is a subsidiary of Emperador Distillers Inc., a wholly-owned unit of Alliance Global Group controlled by tycoon Andrew Tan.

“Our company Emperador has a good fortune to acquire 100 percent of Whyte and Mackay, the fifth largest scotch whiskey company in the world. We will use the European network to distribute our products across the globe,” Co said in an interview on the sidelines of the Great Investment Forum at the Makati Shangri-La sponsored by the UK Trade and Investment on Wednesday.

Emperador Distillers beat around 16 bidders, all prestigious global companies, to acquire the stake. The company will close by the end of October its 430-million-pound acquisition of the UK scotch manufacturer.

Emperador said with the acquisition, it would establish presence in Europe and 50 countries across the world.

This would be the first time Emperador products will tap exports to Europe although it has small presence in countries where there are large concentration of Filipino residents.

Its vineyard expansion in Spain will give the company to expand its research and development and apply new technology.

The company now has over a thousand hectares of vineyard in Toledo which it acquired for P5.8 billion.

Co said the cost of the additional 1,000 hectares would cost much less, although the company set aside P4 billion this year to expand local distillery, which is set to operate by 2016.

Whyte and Mackay has some of the world’s finest and oldest whisky inventory. It has four distilleries strategically located in key regions, two of them in the highlands.

“There are about 109 licensed distilleries in Scotland, and we own five of them. Being a UK-based company, our products are widely available across Europe and 50 countries around the world. The acquisition gives Emperador access to the international market,” said Co.